Everest, MountSanskrit and Nepali Sagarmatha, Tibetan Chomolungma, Chinese (Pinyin) Zhumulangma Feng, or (Wade-Giles romanization) Chu-mu-lang-ma Feng, also spelled Qomolangma Fengmountain on the crest of the Great Himalayas of southern Asia that lies on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, at 27°59′ N, 86°56′ E. Reaching an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 metres), Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, the highest point on Earth.

Like other high peaks in the region, Mount Everest has long been revered by local peoples; its most common Tibetan name, Chomolungma, means “Goddess Mother of the World” or “Goddess of the Valley.” The Sanskrit name Sagarmatha means literally “Ocean Mother.” Its identity as the highest point on the Earth’s surface was not recognized, however, until 1852, when the governmental Survey of India established that fact. In 1865 the mountain—previously referred to as Peak XV—was renamed for Sir George Everest, British surveyor general of India from 1830 to 1843.

Physical features

Geology and relief

The Himalayan ranges were thrust upward by tectonic action as the Indian-Australian Plate moved northward from the south and was subducted (forced downward) under the Eurasian Plate following the collision of the two plates about 50 million years ago. The Himalayas themselves started rising about 25 to 30 million years ago, and the Great Himalayas began to take their present form during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago). Everest and its surrounding peaks are part of a large mountain massif that forms a focal point, or knot, of this tectonic action in the Great Himalayas. Information from global positioning instruments in place on Everest since the late 1990s indicates that the mountain continues to move a few inches to the northeast and rise a fraction of an inch each year.

Everest is composed of multiple layers of rock folded back on themselves (nappes). Rock on the lower elevations of the mountain consists of metamorphic schists and gneisses, topped by igneous granites. Higher up are found sedimentary rocks of marine origin (remnants of the ancient floor of the Tethys Sea that closed after the collision of the two plates). Notable is the Yellow Band, a limestone formation that is prominently visible just below the summit pyramid.

The barren Southeast, Northeast, and West ridges culminate in the Everest summit; a short distance away is the South Summit, a minor bump on the Southeast Ridge with an elevation of 28,700 feet (8,748 metres). The mountain can be seen directly from its northeastern side, where it rises about 12,000 feet (3,600 metres) above the Plateau of Tibet. The peak of Changtse (24,803 feet [7,560 metres]) rises to the north. Khumbutse (21,867 feet [6,665 metres]), Nuptse (25,791 feet [7,861 metres]), and Lhotse (27,923 feet [8,511 metres]) surround Everest’s base to the west and south.

Everest is shaped like a three-sided pyramid. The three generally flat planes constituting the sides are called faces, and the line by which two faces join is known as a ridge. The North Face rises above Tibet and is bounded by the North Ridge (which meets the Northeast Ridge) and the West Ridge; key features of this side of the mountain include the Great and Hornbein couloirs (steep gullies) and the North Col at the start of the North Ridge. The Southwest Face rises above Nepal and is bounded by the West Ridge and the Southeast Ridge; notable features on this side include the South Col (at the start of the Southeast Ridge) and the Khumbu Icefall, the latter a jumble of large blocks of ice that has long been a daunting challenge for climbers. The East Face—or Kangshung (Kangxung) Face—also rises above Tibet and is bounded by the Southeast Ridge and the Northeast Ridge.

The summit of Everest itself is covered by rock-hard snow surmounted by a layer of softer snow that fluctuates annually by some 5–20 feet (1.5–6 metres); the snow level is highest in September, after the monsoon, and lowest in May after having been depleted by the strong northwesterly winter winds. The summit and upper slopes sit so high in the Earth’s atmosphere that the amount of breathable oxygen there is one-third what it is at sea level. Lack of oxygen, powerful winds, and extremely cold temperatures preclude the development of any plant or animal life there.

Drainage and climate

Glaciers cover the slopes of Everest to its base. Individual glaciers flanking the mountain are the Kangshung Glacier to the east; the East, Central, and West Rongbuk (Rongpu) glaciers to the north and northwest; the Pumori Glacier to the northwest; and the Khumbu Glacier to the west and south, which is fed by the glacier bed of the Western Cwm, an enclosed valley of ice between Everest and the Lhotse-Nuptse Ridge to the south. Glacial action has been the primary force behind the heavy and continuous erosion of Everest and the other high Himalayan peaks.

The mountain’s drainage pattern radiates to the southwest, north, and east. The Khumbu Glacier melts into the Lobujya (Lobuche) River of Nepal, which flows southward as the Imja River to its confluence with the Dudh Kosi River. In Tibet the Rong River originates from the Pumori and Rongbuk glaciers and the Kama River from the Kangshung Glacier: both flow into the Arun River, which cuts through the Himalayas into Nepal. The Rong, Dudh Kosi, and Kama river valleys form, respectively, the northern, southern, and eastern access routes to the summit.

The climate of Everest is always hostile to living things. The warmest average daytime temperature (in July) is only about −2 °F (−19 °C) on the summit; in January, the coldest month, summit temperatures average −33 °F (−36 °C) and can drop as low as −76 °F (−60 °C). Storms can come up suddenly, and temperatures can plummet unexpectedly. The peak of Everest is so high that it reaches the lower limit of the jet stream, and it can be buffeted by sustained winds of more than 100 miles (160 km) per hour. Precipitation falls as snow during the summer monsoon (late May to mid-September). The risk of frostbite to climbers on Everest is extremely high.

The height of Everest

Controversy over the exact elevation of the summit developed because of variations in snow level, gravity deviation, and light refraction. The figure 29,028 feet (8,848 metres), plus or minus a fraction, was established by the Survey of India between 1952 and 1954 and became widely accepted. This value was used by most researchers, mapping agencies, and publishers until 1999.

Attempts were subsequently made to remeasure the mountain’s height. A Chinese survey in 1975 obtained the figure of 29,029.24 feet (8,848.11 metres), and an Italian survey, using satellite surveying techniques, obtained a value of 29,108 feet (8,872 metres) in 1987, but questions arose about the methods used. In 1992 another Italian survey, using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and laser measurement technology, yielded the figure 29,023 feet (8,846 metres) by subtracting from the measured height 6.5 feet (2 metres) of ice and snow on the summit, but the methodology used was again called into question.

In 1999 an American survey, sponsored by the (U.S.) National Geographic Society and others, took precise measurements using GPS equipment. Their finding of 29,035 feet (8,850 metres), plus or minus 6.5 feet (2 metres), was accepted by the society and by various specialists in the fields of geodesy and cartography. The Chinese mounted another expedition in 2005 that utilized ice-penetrating radar in conjunction with GPS equipment. The result of this was what the Chinese called a “rock height” of 29,017.12 feet (8,844.43 metres), which, though widely reported in the media, was recognized only by China for the next several years. Nepal in particular disputed the Chinese figure, preferring what was termed the “snow height” of 29,028 feet. In April 2010 China and Nepal agreed to recognize the validity of both figures.

Human factors

Habitation

Everest is so tall and its climate so severe that it is incapable of supporting sustained human occupation, but the valleys below the mountain are inhabited by Tibetan-speaking peoples. Notable among these are the Sherpas, who live in villages at elevations up to about 14,000 feet (4,270 metres) in the Khumbu valley of Nepal and other locations. Traditionally an agricultural people with little cultivable land at their disposal, the Sherpas for years were traders and led a seminomadic lifestyle in their search for pastureland. In summer, livestock was grazed as high as 16,000 feet (4,880 metres), while winter refuge was taken at lower elevations on sheltered ledges and along riverbanks.

Living in close proximity to the world’s highest mountains, the Sherpas traditionally treated the Himalayas as sacred—building Buddhist monasteries at their base, placing prayer flags on the slopes, and establishing sanctuaries for the wildlife of the valleys that included musk deer, monal pheasant, and Himalayan partridge. Gods and demons were believed to live in the high peaks, and the Yeti (the so-called Abominable Snowman) was said to roam the lower slopes. For these reasons, the Sherpas traditionally did not climb the mountains.

However, beginning with the British expeditions of the early 20th century, surveying and portering work became available. Eventually, the respect and pay earned in mountaineering made it attractive to the Sherpas, who, being so well adapted to the high altitudes, were capable of carrying large loads of cargo over long distances. Though Sherpas and other hill people (the name Sherpa came to be applied—erroneously—to all porters) tend to outperform their foreign clients, they typically have played a subordinate role in expeditions; rarely, for example, has one of their names been associated with a pioneering route on Everest. The influx of foreign climbers—and, in far greater numbers, trekkers—has dramatically changed Sherpa life, as their livelihood increasingly has come to depend on these climbing expeditions.

Environmental issues

On the Nepalese side of the international boundary, the mountain and its surrounding valleys lie within Sagarmatha National Park, a 480-square-mile (1,243-square-km) zone established in 1976. In 1979 the park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. The valleys contain stands of rhododendron and forests of birch and pine, while above the tree line alpine vegetation extends to the feet of the glaciers. Over the years, carelessness and excessive consumption of resources by mountaineers, as well as overgrazing by livestock, have damaged the habitats of snow leopards, lesser pandas, Tibetan bears, and scores of bird species. To counteract past abuses, various reforestation programs have been carried out by local communities and the Nepalese government.

Expeditions have removed supplies and equipment left by climbers on Everest’s slopes, including hundreds of oxygen containers. A large quantity of the litter of past climbers—tons of items such as tents, cans, crampons, and human waste—has been hauled down from the mountain and recycled or discarded. However, the bodies of most of the more than 200 240 climbers who died on the upper slopes of Everest have not been removed, as their weight makes carrying them down extremely difficult. Notable in the cleanup endeavour have been the efforts of the Eco Everest Expeditions, the first of which was organized in 2008 to commemorate the death that January of Everest-climbing pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary. Those expeditions also have publicized ecological issues (in particular, concerns about the effects of climate change in the region through observations that the Khumbu Icefall has been melting).

History of exploration

Mountaineering on Everest

The human challenge

Mount Everest is difficult to get to and more difficult to climb, even with the great advances made in equipment, transportation, communications, and weather forecasting since the first major expeditions in the 1920s. The mountain itself lies in a highly isolated location. There are no roads in the region on the Nepalese side, and before the 1960s all goods and supplies had to be carried long distances by humans and pack animals. Since then, airstrips built in the Khumbu valley have greatly facilitated transport to the Everest vicinity, although the higher areas have remained accessible only via footpaths. In Tibet there is now a road to the north-side Base Camp.

There are only two brief time periods when the weather on Everest is the most hospitable for an ascent. The best one is in April and May, right before the monsoon. Once the monsoon comes, the snow is too soft and the likelihood of avalanche too great. For a few weeks in September, after the monsoon, weather conditions may also permit an attempt; by October, however, the winter storms begin and persist until March, making climbing then nearly impossible.

In addition to the challenges posed by Everest’s location and climate, the effects of high altitudes on the human body are extreme: the region in the Himalayas above about 25,000 feet (7,600 metres) is known as the “death zone.” Climbers at such high altitude have much more rapid breathing and pulse rates (as their bodies try to obtain more oxygen). In addition, they are not able to digest food well (and often find eating unappealing), they sleep poorly, and they often find their thinking to be confused. These symptoms are manifestations of oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) in the body tissues, which makes any effort difficult and can lead to poor decisions being made in an already dangerous environment. Supplemental (bottled) oxygen breathed through a mask can partially alleviate the effects of hypoxia, but it can present an additional problem if a climber becomes used to the oxygen and then runs out while still at high altitude. (See also altitude sickness.)

Two other medical conditions can affect climbers at high elevations. High-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) occurs when the body responds to the lack of oxygen by increasing blood flow to the brain; the brain begins to swell, and coma and death may occur. High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a similar condition in which the body circulates additional blood to the lungs; this blood begins to leak into the air sacs, and death is caused essentially by drowning. The most effective treatment for both conditions is to move the affected person to a lower elevation. It has been found that the drug dexamethasone is a useful emergency first-aid treatment when injected into stricken climbers, allowing them to regain movement (when they might otherwise be incapacitated) and thus descend.

Routes and techniques

The southern route via the Khumbu Icefall and the South Col is the one most commonly taken by climbers attempting to summit Everest. It is the route used by the 1953 British expedition when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first men known to have reached Everest’s summit. The northern route, attempted unsuccessfully by seven British expeditions in the 1920s and ’30s, is also climbed. It is now generally accepted that the first successful ascent via that approach was made by a Chinese expedition in 1960, with Wang Fuzhou, Qu Yinhua, Liu Lianman, and a Tibetan, Konbu, reaching the summit. The East Face, Everest’s biggest, is rarely climbed. An American team made the first ascent of it in 1983, and Carlos Buhler, Kim Momb, and Lou Reichardt reached the summit.

Perhaps because most of the early climbers on Everest had military backgrounds, the traditional method of ascending it has been called “siege” climbing. With this technique, a large team of climbers establishes a series of tented camps farther and farther up the mountain’s side. For instance, on the most frequently climbed southern route, the Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier is at an elevation of about 17,600 feet (5,400 metres). The theory is that the climbers ascend higher and higher to establish camps farther up the route, then come down to sleep at night at the camp below the one being established. (Mountain climbers express this in the phrase, “Climb high, sleep low.”) This practice allows climbers to acclimatize to the high altitude. Camps are established along the route about every 1,500 feet (450 metres) of vertical elevation and are given designations of Camp I, Camp II, and so on. Finally, a last camp is set up close enough to the summit (usually about 3,000 feet [900 metres] below) to allow a small group (called the “assault” team) to reach the peak. This was the way the British organized their expeditions; most of the large commercial expeditions continue to use it—except that all paying clients are now given a chance at the summit. Essential to the siege climbing style is the logistical support given to the climbers by the Sherpas.

There had been a feeling among some early 20th-century climbers that ascending with oxygen, support from Sherpas, and a large party was “unsporting” or that it missed the point of mountain climbing. British explorer Eric Shipton expressed the view that these large expeditions caused climbers to lose their sense of the aesthetic of mountain climbing and to focus instead on only achieving the summit. Top mountaineers, disenchanted with the ponderous and predictable nature of these siege climbs, began in the 1970s to bring a more traditional “Alpine” style of climbing to the world’s highest peaks; by the 1980s this included even Everest. In this approach, a small party of perhaps three or four climbers goes up and down the mountain as quickly as possible, carrying all needed gear and provisions. This lightweight approach precludes fixing miles of safety ropes and carrying heavy supplemental oxygen. Speed is of the essence. However, at least four weeks still must be spent at and around Base Camp acclimatizing to altitude before the party can consider a summit attempt.

Early expeditions

Reconnaissance of 1921

In the 1890s British army officers Sir Francis Younghusband and Charles (C.G.) Bruce, who were stationed in India, met and began discussing the possibility of an expedition to Everest. The officers became involved with two British exploring organizations—the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the Alpine Club—and these groups became instrumental in fostering interest in exploring the mountain. Bruce and Younghusband sought permission to mount an Everest expedition beginning in the early 1900s, but political tensions and bureaucratic difficulties made it impossible. Though Tibet was closed to Westerners, British officer John (J.B.L.) Noel disguised himself and entered it in 1913; he eventually got within 40 miles (65 km) of Everest and was able to see the summit. His lecture to the RGS in 1919 once again generated interest in Everest, permission to explore it was requested of Tibet, and this was granted in 1920. In 1921 the RGS and the Alpine Club formed the Mount Everest Committee, chaired by Younghusband, to organize and finance the expedition. A party under Lieutenant Colonel C.K. Howard-Bury set out to explore the whole Himalayan range and find a route up Everest. The other members were G.H. Bullock, A.M. Kellas, George Mallory, H. Raeburn, A.F.R. Wollaston, Majors H.T. Morshead and O.E. Wheeler (surveyors), and A.M. Heron (geologist).

During the summer of 1921 the northern approaches to the mountain were thoroughly explored. On the approach to Everest, Kellas died of heart failure. Because Raeburn also fell ill, the high exploration devolved almost entirely upon Mallory and Bullock. Neither had Himalayan experience, and they were faced with the problem of acclimatization besides the difficulty of the terrain.

The first object was to explore the Rongbuk valley. The party ascended the Central Rongbuk Glacier, missing the narrower opening of the eastern branch and the possible line up Everest. They returned eastward for a rest at Kharta Shekar. From there they discovered a pass at 22,000 feet (6,700 metres), the Lhakpa (Lhagba), leading to the head of the East Rongbuk Glacier. The saddle north of Everest, despite its forbidding appearance, was climbed on September 24 by Mallory, Bullock, and Wheeler and named the North Col. A bitter wind prevented them from going higher, but Mallory had from there traced a potential route to the summit.

Attempt of 1922

Members of the expedition were Brigadier General C.G. Bruce (leader), Captain J.G. Bruce, C.G. Crawford, G.I. Finch, T.G. Longstaff, Mallory, Captain C.J. Morris, Major Morshead, Edward Norton, T.H. Somervell, Colonel E.I. Strutt, A.W. Wakefield, and John Noel. It was decided that the mountain must be attempted before the onset of the summer monsoon. In the spring, therefore, the baggage was carried by Sherpas across the high, windy Plateau of Tibet.

Supplies were carried from Base Camp at 16,500 feet (5,030 metres) to an advanced base at Camp III. From there, on May 13, a camp was established on the North Col. With great difficulty a higher camp was set at 25,000 feet (7,620 metres) on the sheltered side of the North Ridge. On the next morning, May 21, Mallory, Norton, and Somervell left Morshead, who was suffering from frostbite, and pushed on through trying windy conditions to 27,000 feet (8,230 metres) near the crest of the Northeast Ridge. On May 25 Finch and Captain Bruce set out from Camp III using oxygen. Finch, a protagonist of oxygen, was justified by the results. The party, with the Gurkha Tejbir Bura, established Camp V at 25,500 feet (7,772 metres). There they were stormbound for a day and two nights, but the next morning Finch and Bruce reached 27,300 feet (8,320 metres) and returned the same day to Camp III. A third attempt during the early monsoon snow ended in disaster. On June 7 Mallory, Crawford, and Somervell, with 14 Sherpas, were crossing the North Col slopes. Nine Sherpas were swept by an avalanche over an ice cliff, and seven were killed. Mallory’s party was carried down 150 feet (45 metres) but not injured.

Attempt of 1924

Members of the expedition were Brigadier General Bruce (leader), Bentley Beetham, Captain Bruce, J. de V. Hazard, Major R.W.G. Hingston, Andrew Irvine, Mallory, Norton, Noel Odell, E.O. Shebbeare (transport), Somervell, and Noel (photographer). Noel devised a novel publicity scheme for financing this trip by buying all film and lecture rights for the expedition, which covered the entire cost of the venture. To generate interest in the climb, he designed a commemorative postcard and stamp; sacks of postcards were then mailed from Base Camp, mostly to schoolchildren who had requested them. This was the first of many Everest public relations ventures.

On the climb itself, because of wintry conditions, Camp IV on the North Col was established only on May 22 by a new and steeper though safer route; the party was then forced to descend. General Bruce had to return because of illness, and under Norton Camp IV was reestablished on June 1. At 25,000 feet (7,620 metres), Mallory and Captain Bruce were stopped when the Sherpas became exhausted. On June 4 Norton and Somervell, with three Sherpas, pitched Camp VI at 26,800 feet (8,170 metres); the next day they reached 28,000 feet (8,535 metres). Norton went on to 28,100 feet (8,565 metres), a documented height unsurpassed until 1953. Mallory and Irvine, using oxygen, set out from the North Col on June 6. On June 8 they started for the summit. Odell, who had come up that morning, believed he saw them in early afternoon high up between the mists.

Initially, Odell claimed to have seen them at what became known as the Second Step (more recently, some have claimed that Odell was describing the Third Step), though later he was less certain exactly where it had been. On the Northeast Ridge there are three “steps”—steep rock barriers—between the elevations of 27,890 and 28,870 feet (8,500 and 8,800 metres) that make the final approach to the summit difficult. The First Step is a limestone vertical barrier about 110 feet (34 metres) high. Above that is a ledge and the Second Step, which is about 160 feet (50 metres) high. (In 1975 a Chinese expedition from the north affixed an aluminum ladder to the step that now makes climbing it much easier.) The Third Step contains another sheer section of rock about 100 feet (30 metres) high that leads to a more gradual slope to the summit. If Odell actually saw Mallory and Irvine at the Third Step at about 12:50 pm, then they would have been some 500 feet (150 metres) below the summit at that point. However, there has long been great uncertainty and considerable debate about all this, especially whether the pair made it to the top that day and if they were ascending or descending the mountain when Odell spotted them. The next morning Odell went up to search and reached Camp VI on June 10, but he found no trace of either man.

When Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Everest, he replied with the famous line, “Because it’s there.” The British public had come to admire the determined climber over the course of his three expeditions, and they were shocked by his disappearance. (The fate of Mallory remained a mystery for 75 years; see Finding Mallory and commemorating the historic ascents.)

High winds made it extremely difficult to establish Base Camp in the North Col, but it was finally done on May 1. Its occupants were cut off from the others for several days. On May 22, however, Camp V was placed at 25,700 feet (7,830 metres); again storms set in, retreat was ordered, and V was not reoccupied until the 28th. On the 29th Wyn-Harris, Wager, and Longland pitched Camp VI at 27,400 feet (8,350 metres). On the way down, Longland’s party, caught in a blizzard, had great difficulty.

On May 30, while Smythe and Shipton came up to Camp V, Wyn-Harris and Wager set off from Camp VI. A short distance below the crest of the Northeast Ridge, they found Irvine’s ice ax. They reckoned that the Second Step was impossible to ascend and were compelled to follow Norton’s 1924 traverse to the Great Couloir splitting the face below the summit. They crossed the gorge to a height about the same as Norton’s but then had to return. Smythe and Shipton made a final attempt on June 1. Shipton returned to Camp V. Smythe pushed on alone, crossed the couloir, and reached the same height as Wyn-Harris and Wager. On his return the monsoon ended operations.

Also in 1933 a series of airplane flights were conducted over Everest—the first occurring on April 3—which permitted the summit and surrounding landscape to be photographed. In 1934 Maurice Wilson, an inexperienced climber who was obsessed with the mountain, died above Camp III attempting to climb Everest alone.

Reconnaissance of 1935

In 1935 an expedition led by Shipton was sent to reconnoitre the mountain, explore the western approaches, and discover more about monsoon conditions. Other members were L.V. Bryant, E.G.H. Kempson, M. Spender (surveyor), H.W. Tilman, C. Warren, and E.H.L. Wigram. In late July the party succeeded in putting a camp on the North Col, but dangerous avalanche conditions kept them off the mountain. One more visit was paid to the North Col area in an attempt on Changtse (the north peak). During the reconnaissance Wilson’s body was found and buried; his diary was also recovered.

Attempts of 1936 and 1938

Members of the 1936 expedition were Ruttledge (leader), J.M.L. Gavin, Wyn-Harris, G.N. Humphreys, Kempson, Morris (transport), P.R. Oliver, Shipton, Smyth-Windham (wireless), Smythe, Warren, and Wigram. This expedition had the misfortune of an unusually early monsoon. The route up to the North Col was finished on May 13, but the wind had dropped, and heavy snowfalls almost immediately after the camp was established put an end to climbing the upper part of the mountain. Several later attempts to regain the col failed.

Members of the 1938 expedition were Tilman (leader), P. Lloyd, Odell, Oliver, Shipton, Smythe, and Warren. Unlike the two previous parties, some members of this expedition used oxygen. The party arrived early, in view of the experience of 1936, but they were actually too early and had to withdraw, meeting again at Camp III on May 20. The North Col camp was pitched under snowy conditions on May 24. Shortly after, because of dangerous snow, the route was changed and a new one made up the west side of the col. On June 6 Camp V was established. On June 8, in deep snow, Shipton and Smythe with seven Sherpas pitched Camp VI, at 27,200 feet (8,290 metres), but the next day they were stopped above it by deep powder. The same fate befell Tilman and Lloyd, who made their attempt on the 11th. Lloyd benefited from an open-circuit oxygen apparatus that partly allowed him to breathe the outside air. Bad weather compelled a final retreat.

Golden age of Everest climbs

Reconnaissance of 1951

After 1938, expeditions to Everest were interrupted by World War II and the immediate postwar years. In addition, the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1950 precluded using the northern approach. In 1951 permission was received from the Nepalese for a reconnaissance of the mountain from the south. Members of the expedition were Shipton (leader), T.D. Bourdillon, Edmund Hillary, W.H. Murray, H.E. Riddiford, and M.P. Ward. The party marched through the monsoon, reaching Namche Bazar, the chief village of Solu-Khumbu, on September 22. At Khumbu Glacier they found it possible to scale the great icefall seen by Mallory from the west. They were stopped at the top by a huge crevasse but traced a possible line up the Western Cwm (cirque, or valley) to the South Col, the high saddle between Lhotse and Everest.

Spring attempt of 1952

Expedition members were E. Wyss Dunant (leader), J.J. Asper, R. Aubert, G. Chevalley, R. Dittert (leader of climbing party), L. Flory, E. Hofstetter, P.C. Bonnant, R. Lambert, A. Roch, A. Lombard (geologist), and A. Zimmermann (botanist). This strong Swiss party first set foot on the Khumbu Icefall on April 26. After considerable difficulty with the route, they overcame the final crevasse by means of a rope bridge. The 4,000-foot (1,220-metre) face of Lhotse, which had to be climbed to reach the South Col, was attempted by a route running beside a long spur of rock christened the Éperon des Genevois. The first party, Lambert, Flory, Aubert, and Tenzing Norgay (sirdar, or leader of the porters), with five Sherpas, tried to reach the col in one day. They were compelled to bivouac quite a distance below it (May 25) and the next day reached the summit of the Éperon, at 26,300 feet (8,016 metres), whence they descended to the col and pitched camp. On May 27 the party (less the five Sherpas) climbed up the Southeast Ridge. They reached approximately 27,200 feet (8,290 metres), and there Lambert and Tenzing bivouacked. The next day they pushed on up the ridge and turned back at approximately 28,000 feet (8,535 metres). Also on May 28 Asper, Chevalley, Dittert, Hofstetter, and Roch reached the South Col, but they were prevented by wind conditions from going higher and descended to the base.

Autumn attempt of 1952

Members of this second Swiss expedition were Chevalley (leader), J. Buzio, G. Gross, Lambert, E. Reiss, A. Spöhel, and Norman Dyhrenfurth (photographer). The party found the icefall easier to climb than in the spring and had brought poles to bridge the great crevasse. Camp IV was occupied on October 20. Higher up, however, they were constantly harassed by bitterly cold winds. On the ice slope below the Éperon one Sherpa was killed, and the party took to the glaciated face of Lhotse on the right. The South Col was reached on November 19, but the summit party climbed only 300 feet (90 metres) higher before being forced to withdraw.

The historic ascent of 1953

Members of the expedition, which was sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club, were Colonel John Hunt (leader; later Baron Hunt), G.C. Band, Bourdillon, R.C. Evans, A. Gregory, Edmund Hillary, W.G. Lowe, C.W.F. Noyce, M.P. Ward, M.H. Westmacott, Major C.G. Wylie (transport), T. Stobart (cinematographer), and L.G.C. Pugh (physiologist). After three weeks’ training on neighbouring mountains, a route was worked out up the Khumbu Icefall, and it was possible to start ferrying loads of supplies to the Western Cwm head. Two forms of oxygen apparatus, closed- and open-circuit types, were tried. As a result of a reconnaissance of Lhotse in early May, Hunt decided that Bourdillon and Evans, experts on closed-circuit, should make the first attempt from the South Col. Hillary with Tenzing Norgay as sirdar were to follow, using open-circuit and a higher camp.

Lowe spent nine days, most of them with Ang Nyima Sherpa, working at the lower section of the Lhotse face. On May 17 a camp was pitched on it at 24,000 feet (7,315 metres). The route on the upper part of the face, over the top of the Éperon, was first made by Noyce and Annullu Sherpa on May 21. The next day 13 Sherpas led by Wylie, with Hillary and Tenzing ahead, reached the col and dumped loads. The fine weather continued from May 14 but with high winds. On May 24 the first summit party, with Hunt and two Sherpas in support, reached the col. On the 26th Evans and Bourdillon climbed to the South Summit of Everest, but by then it was too late in the day to go farther. Meanwhile Hunt and Da Namgyal Sherpa left loads for a ridge camp at 27,350 feet (8,335 metres).

On the 28th the ridge camp was established at 27,900 feet (8,500 metres) by Hillary, Tenzing, Lowe, Gregory, and Ang Nyima, and Hillary and Tenzing passed the night there. The two set out early on the morning of May 29, reaching the South Summit by 9:00 am. The first challenge on the final approach to the summit of Everest was a fairly level ridge of rock some 400 feet (120 metres) long flanked by an ice “cornice”; to the right was the East (Kangshung) Face, and to the left was the Southwest Face, both sheer drop-offs. The final obstacle, about halfway between the South Summit and the summit of Everest, was a steep spur of rock and ice—now called the Hillary Step. Though it is only about 55 feet (17 metres) high, the formation is difficult to climb because of its extreme pitch and because a mistake would be deadly. Climbers now use fixed ropes to ascend this section, but Hillary and Tenzing had only ice-climbing equipment. First Hillary and then Tenzing tackled the barrier much as one would climb a rock chimney—i.e., they inched up a little at a time with their backs against the rock wall and their feet wedged in a crack between the rock and ice.

They reached the summit of Everest at 11:30 am. Hillary turned to Tenzing, and the men shook hands; Tenzing then embraced Hillary in a hug. Hillary took photos, and the two searched for but did not find signs that Mallory and Irvine had been to the summit. Tenzing, a Buddhist, made an offering of food for the mountain; Hillary left a crucifix Hunt had given him. The two men ate some sweets and then headed down. They had spent about 15 minutes on the top of the world.

They were met on the slopes above the South Col that afternoon by Lowe and Noyce. Hillary is reputed to have said to Lowe, “Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.” By June 2 the whole expedition had reassembled at the Base Camp.

A correspondent for The Times, James (later Jan) Morris, had hiked up to Camp IV to follow the story more closely and was on hand to cover the event. Worried that other papers might scoop him, Morris wired his story to the paper in code. It reached London in time to appear in the June 2 edition. A headline from another London paper published later that day, “All this, and Everest too!” referred to the fact that Elizabeth II was being crowned on the same day on which the news broke about the success on Everest. After years of privation during and after World War II and the subsequent loss of empire, the effect of the successful Everest ascent was a sensation for the British public. The feat was also celebrated worldwide, but nowhere like in Britain and the Commonwealth, whose climbers had been so closely associated with Everest for more than 30 years. As Walt Unsworth described it in Everest,

And so, the British, as usual, had not only won the last battle but had timed victory in a masterly fashion. Even had it not been announced on Coronation Day it would have made world headlines, but in Britain the linking of the two events was regarded as almost an omen, ordained by the Almighty as a special blessing for the dawn of a New Elizabethan Age. It is doubtful whether any single adventure had ever before received such universal acclaim: Scott’s epic last journey, perhaps, or Stanley’s finding of Livingstone—it was of that order.

The expedition little expected the fanfare that awaited them on their return to Britain. Both Hillary and Hunt were knighted in July (Hunt was later made a life peer), and Tenzing was awarded the George Medal. All members of the expedition were feted at parties and banquets for months, but the spotlight fell mostly on Hillary and Tenzing as the men responsible for one of the defining events of the 20th century.

Everest-Lhotse, 1956

In 1956 the Swiss performed the remarkable feat of getting two ropes up Everest and one up Lhotse, using oxygen. Members of the expedition were A. Eggler (leader), W. Diehl, H. Grimm, H.R. von Gunten, E. Leuthold, F. Luchsinger, J. Marmet, F. Müller, Reiss, A. Reist, and E. Schmied. They followed roughly the British route up the icefall and the Lhotse face. From their Camp VI Reiss and Luchsinger reached the summit of Lhotse on May 18. Camp VI was moved to the South Col, and the summit of Everest was reached from a camp at 27,500 feet (8,380 metres) by Marmet and Schmied (May 23) and Gunten and Reist (May 24).

Attempts of 1960

In 1960 an Indian expedition with Sherpas, led by Brigadier Gyan Singh, attempted to scale Everest from the south. Camp IV was established in the Western Cwm on April 19. Bad weather followed, but a party using oxygen reached the South Col on May 9. On May 24 three members pitched a tent at 27,000 feet (8,230 metres) on the Southeast Ridge but were turned back by wind and weather at about 28,300 feet (8,625 metres). Continued bad weather prevented the second summit party’s leaving the South Col.

Also that spring it was reported that a Chinese expedition led by Shi Zhanzhun climbed Everest from the north. By their account they reached the North Col in April, and on May 24 Wang Fuzhou, Qu Yinhua, Liu Lianman, and a Tibetan mountaineer, Konbu, climbed the slab by a human ladder, reaching the top at 4:20 am to place the Chinese flag and a bust of Mao Zedong. The credibility of their account was doubted at the time but later was generally accepted (see below The north approach).

The U.S. ascent of 1963

The first American expedition to Everest was led by the Swiss climber Norman Dyhrenfurth, who selected a team of 19 mountaineers and scientists from throughout the United States and 37 Sherpas. The purpose was twofold: to reach the summit and to carry out scientific research programs in physiology, psychology, glaciology, and meteorology. Of particular interest were the studies on how the climbers changed physiologically and psychologically under extreme stresses at high altitudes where oxygen deprivation was unavoidable. These studies were related to the U.S. space program, and among the 400 sponsors of the expedition were the National Geographic Society, the U.S. State Department, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the U.S. Air Force.

On February 20 the expedition left Kathmandu, Nepal, for Everest, 180 miles (290 km) away. More than 900 porters carried some 26 tons of food, clothing, equipment, and scientific instruments. Base Camp was established at 17,800 feet (5,425 metres) on Khumbu Glacier on March 20, one month earlier than on any previous expedition. For the next five weeks the team selected a route toward the summit and established and stocked a series of camps up the mountain via the traditional South Col route. They also explored the more difficult and untried West Ridge route. On May 1 James W. Whittaker and Nawang Gombu Sherpa, nephew of Tenzing Norgay, reached the summit despite high winds. On May 22 four other Americans reached the top. Two of them, William F. Unsoeld and Thomas F. Hornbein, made mountaineering history by ascending the West Ridge, which until then had been considered unclimbable. They descended the traditional way, along the Southeast Ridge toward the South Col, thus also accomplishing the first major mountain traverse in the Himalayas. On the descent, Unsoeld and Hornbein, along with Barry C. Bishop and Luther G. Jerstad (who had also reached the summit that day via the South Col), were forced to bivouac in the open at 28,000 feet (8,535 metres). All suffered frostbite, and Bishop and Unsoeld later lost their toes; the two had to be carried out of Base Camp on the backs of Sherpas. On July 8 Dyhrenfurth and all members of the expedition were presented the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal by President John F. Kennedy.

The Indian ascent of 1965

In 1965 a 21-man Indian expedition, led by Lieutenant Commander M.S. Kohli, succeeded in putting nine men on the summit of Everest. India thus became the fourth country to scale the world’s highest mountain. One of the group, Nawang Gombu, became the first person ever to climb Mount Everest twice, having first accomplished the feat on the U.S. expedition.

Developments since 1965

The 1970s

The Southwest Face

From 1966 to 1969 the government of Nepal banned mountaineers from climbing in the Nepalese Himalayas. When the ranges were reopened in 1969, the world’s top mountaineers—following the American example of 1963—set their eyes on new routes to Everest’s summit. With Tibet still closed and only the southern approach available, the obvious challenge was the huge Southwest Face rising from the Western Cwm. The crux of the problem was the Rock Band—a vertical cliff 2,000 feet (600 metres) high starting at about 26,250 feet (8,000 metres). A Japanese reconnaissance expedition reached the foot of the Rock Band in the autumn of 1969 and returned in spring 1970 for a full-scale attempt led by Matsukata Saburō. Failing to make further progress on the Southwest Face, the expedition switched to the easier South Col route, getting the first Japanese climbers, including the renowned Japanese explorer Uemura Naomi, to the summit.

Expeditions continued to lay “siege” to the Southwest Face. The most publicized of these climbs was the 1971 International Expedition led by Norman Dyhrenfurth; however, internationalist ideals were savaged by the stresses of high altitude, and the expedition degenerated into rancour between the British and non-British climbers. In the spring of 1972 a European expedition led by the German Karl Herrligkoffer was equally inharmonious.

The battle for the Southwest Face continued in a predictable pattern: large teams, supported by Sherpas acting as high-altitude porters, established a succession of camps in the broad, snow-covered couloir leading to the foot of the intractable Rock Band. Success finally came in the autumn of 1975 to a British expedition led by Chris (later Sir Chris) Bonington, who got the full team and its meticulously prepared equipment to Base Camp by the end of August and made the most of the mainly calm weather during the September time window.

Climbing equipment had changed significantly since 1953. In the mid-1970s rigid box-shaped tents were bolted to aluminum alloy platforms dug into the 45° slope. Smooth-sheathed nylon ropes were affixed to the rock face to make a continuous safety line, which climbers could ascend and descend very efficiently. The 1975 expedition was a smooth operation that utilized a team of 33 Sherpas and was directed by some of the world’s best mountaineers. Unlike previous expeditions, this team explored a deep gully cutting through the left side of the Rock Band, with Paul Braithwaite and Nick Estcourt breaking through to establish Camp VI at about 27,000 feet (8,230 metres). From there Doug Scott and Dougal Haston made a long, bold traverse rightward, eventually gaining the South Summit and continuing over the Hillary Step to the Everest summit, which they reached at 6:00 pm. Rather than risk descending in the dark, they bivouacked in a snow cave close to the South Summit—at 28,750 feet (8,750 metres), this was the highest bivouac in climbing history until Babu Chiri Sherpa bivouacked on the summit itself in 1999. Their oxygen tanks were empty, and they had neither tent nor sleeping bags, but both men survived the ordeal unharmed and returned safely to Camp VI in the morning. Two days later Peter Boardman and Pertemba Sherpa reached the summit, followed by Mick Burke heading for the top in deteriorating weather. Burke never returned; he is presumed to have fallen to his death in the whiteout conditions.

The first ascent by a woman

When Scott and Haston reached the summit of Everest in September 1975, they found a metal surveying tripod left the previous spring by a Chinese team—definitive proof of the first uncontested ascent from the north. The Chinese team included a Tibetan woman, Phantog, who reached the summit on May 27. The honours for the first woman to summit Everest, however, belong to the Japanese climber Tabei Junko, who reached the top from the South Col on May 16. She was climbing with the first all-women expedition to Everest (although male Sherpas supported the climb.)

The West Ridge direct ascent

With the Southwest Face climbed, the next obvious—and harder—challenge was the complete West Ridge direct ascent from Lho Pass (Lho La). Just getting to Lho Pass from Base Camp is a major climb. The West Ridge itself then rises 9,200 feet (2,800 metres) over a distance of 3.5 miles (5.5 km), much of it over difficult rock. In 1979 a Yugoslav team, led by Tone Skarja, made the first ascent, fixing ropes to Camp V at an elevation of about 26,750 feet (8,120 metres), with one rope fixed farther up a steep rock chimney (a crack or gorge large enough to permit a climber to enter). On May 13 Andrej Stremfelj and Jernej Zaplotnik set out from Camp V for the summit. Above the chimney there were two more hard pitches of rock climbing. With no spare rope to fix in place, the climbers realized that they would not be able to descend via these difficult sections. After reaching the summit in midafternoon, they descended by the Hornbein Couloir, bypassing the hardest part of the West Ridge to regain the safety of Camp IV late that evening.

Climbing without supplemental oxygen

Beginning in the 1920s and ’30s, the received wisdom had been that an Everest climb needed a team of at least 10 climbers supported by Sherpas and equipped with supplemental oxygen for the final stages. In 1978 that belief was shattered by the Italian (Tyrolean) climber Reinhold Messner and his Austrian climbing partner Peter Habeler. They had already demonstrated on other high Himalayan peaks the art of Alpine-style climbing—moving rapidly, carrying only the barest essentials, and sometimes not even roping together for safety—as opposed to the standard siege style. Another innovation was their use of plastic boots, which were much lighter than the leather equivalent. In 1978 Messner and Habeler attached themselves as a semiautonomous unit to a large German-Austrian expedition led by Oswald Ölz. At 5:30 am on May 8, the two men left their tent at the South Col and started up the summit ridge carrying nothing but ice axes, cameras, and a short rope. The only external assistance was from the Austrians at their top camp, above the South Col, where the two stopped briefly to melt snow for drinking water. (In those days it was still common practice to place a top camp higher than the South Col; nowadays virtually all parties start their final push from the col, some 3,100 feet [950 metres] below the summit). Maintaining a steady ascent rate of about 325 feet (100 metres) per hour, they reached the summit at 1:15 pm. Habeler was terrified of possibly suffering brain damage from the lack of oxygen and made a remarkable descent to the South Col in just one hour. Messner returned later that afternoon. Exhausted—and in Messner’s case snow-blind from having removed his goggles—the two were escorted back down to the Western Cwm the next morning by the Welsh climber Eric Jones.

Messner and Habeler had proved that human beings could climb to the top of the world without supplemental oxygen; the German Hans Engl and the Sherpas Ang Dorje and Ang Kami were among several climbers who duplicated this feat in the autumn of 1978. However, for Messner, climbing Everest without supplemental oxygen was not enough: he now wanted to reach the summit completely alone. To do that unroped over the treacherous crevasses of the Western Cwm was considered unthinkable, but it was possible on the less-crevassed northern approach through Tibet; by the late 1970s Tibet was again becoming an option.

The north approach

After China occupied Tibet in 1950, permission was denied to any expeditions from noncommunist countries wishing to climb Everest. In 1960 the Chinese army built a road to the Rongbuk Base Camp, then claimed to have made the first ascent of Everest from the north, following the North Col–North Ridge–Northeast Ridge route earlier explored by prewar British expeditions. Many in the West doubted the Chinese assertion, mainly because the official account—which included the claim that Qu Yinhua had scaled the notorious vertical cliff of the Second Step barefoot and which also made constant references to party solidarity and the inspiration of Chairman Mao—was deemed so improbable. Not for the last time, Everest was used as a vehicle for propaganda.

Since that time, however, people in the West have seen Qu’s feet, mutilated by frostbite, and experts have reexamined the 1960 photos and film—many now believe that Qu, Wang Fuzhou, Liu Lianman, and the Tibetan, Konbu, did indeed reach the summit on May 25, 1960. What none can doubt is the Chinese repeat ascent of 1975 by eight Tibetans (including Phantog) and one Chinese. On that climb the group bolted an aluminium ladder to the Second Step, which has remained there and greatly aided all subsequent ascents on what has become the standard route from the north.

The 1980s

In 1979 the Chinese authorities announced that noncommunist countries could again begin mounting Everest expeditions through Tibet. Japan was first to do so, with a joint Sino-Japanese expedition led by Watanabe Hyōrikō in the spring of 1980. Half of the 1980 team repeated the Chinese North Ridge–Northeast Ridge route, with Katō Yasuo reaching the summit alone—making him the first person to climb Everest from the south and north. Meanwhile, another team made the first complete ascent of the North Face from the Central Rongbuk Glacier. The upper face is split by the Great Couloir on the left and the Hornbein Couloir (first attained from the West Ridge in 1963) on the right. The 1980 team climbed a lower couloir (the Japanese Couloir) that led directly to the base of the Hornbein Couloir, which was then followed to the top. Shigehiro Tsuneo and Ozaki Takashi ran out of oxygen about four hours below the summit but continued without it, reaching the summit late and bivouacking on the way down. Once again, modern insulated clothing and modern psychological attitudes about what was possible on Everest had allowed climbers to push on in a manner unthinkable to the prewar pioneers.

First solo climb

Reinhold Messner arrived at Rongbuk during the monsoon in July 1980. He spent a month acclimatizing, did one reconnaissance to the North Col to cache supplies there, then set off alone from Advance Base on the East Rongbuk Glacier before dawn on August 18. After a lucky escape from a concealed crevasse into which he had fallen, he reached the North Col, collected his gear, and continued to climb higher up the North Ridge. He then slanted diagonally right, as George Finch and Geoffrey Bruce had done in 1922, traversing a full 1.2 miles (2 km) before stopping to pitch his tent a second time, at 26,900 feet (8,200 metres). On the third day he entered the Great Couloir, continued up it, and achieved what had eluded Edward Norton, Lawrence Wager, Percy Wyn-Harris, and Francis Smythe by climbing rightward out of the couloir, onto the final terraces, and to the summit. Messner later recounted,

I was in continual agony; I have never in my whole life been so tired as on the summit of Everest that day. I just sat and sat there, oblivious to everything.…I knew I was physically at the end of my tether.

Back at his tent that night he was too weak even to eat or drink, and the next morning he jettisoned all his survival equipment, committing himself to descending all the way to Advance Base Camp in a single day.

Further exploration from Tibet

Messner’s 1980 solo climb demonstrated just what could be done on the world’s highest mountain. With that same bold spirit, a four-man British team came to Rongbuk in 1982 to attempt the complete Northeast Ridge from Raphu Pass (Raphu La). While he was leading the climb of the first of the three prominent Pinnacles that start at about 26,900 feet (8,200 metres), Dick Renshaw suffered a mild stroke and was invalided home. The expedition leader, Chris Bonington, felt too tired to go back up, and thus it was left to Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker to attempt the final ascent. They were last seen alive between the First Pinnacle and the Second Pinnacle on May 17. Boardman’s body was found 10 years later, sitting in the snow near that point; Tasker has not been found.

In 1981 a large American team made the first-ever attempt on Everest’s gigantic East Face from Kangshung Glacier. Avalanche risk thwarted the attempt, but the team returned in autumn of 1983 to attempt again the massive central buttress of the face. This produced some spectacularly hard climbing, led by George Lowe. Above the buttress, the route followed a broad spur of snow and ice to reach the Southeast Ridge just below the South Summit. Carlos Buhler, Lou Reichardt, and Kim Momb reached the Everest summit on October 8, followed the next day by Jay Cassell, Lowe, and Dan Reid.

In 1984 the first Australians to attempt Everest chose a new route up the North Face, climbing through the huge central snowfield, dubbed “White Limbo,” to gain the Great Couloir. Then, like Messner in 1980, the Australians cut out right, with Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer reaching the summit at sunset before making a difficult descent in the dark.

The most remarkable achievement of this era was the 1986 ascent by the Swiss climbers Jean Troillet and Erhard Loretan. Like Messner, they snatched a clear-weather window toward the end of the monsoon for a lightning dash up and down the mountain. Unlike Messner, they did not even carry a tent and sleeping bags. Climbing by night, resting during the comparative warmth of the day, they took just 41.5 hours to climb the Japanese and Hornbein couloirs up the North Face; then, sliding most of the way on their backsides, they descended in about 4.5 hours.

Developments in Nepal

While the most dazzling deeds were being done on the Tibetan side of Everest, there was still much activity in Nepal during the 1980s, with the boldest pioneering expeditions coming from eastern European countries. For dogged teamwork, nothing has surpassed the first winter ascent of Everest. Completed in 1980 by a team of phenomenally rugged Polish climbers, this ascent was led by Andrzej Zawada; expedition members Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki reached the summit on February 17. To crown this success, Zawada then led a spring expedition to make the first ascent of the South Pillar (left of the South Col), getting Andrzej Czok and Jerzy Kukuczka to the summit. Kukuczka, like Messner, would eventually climb all of the world’s 26,250-foot (8,000-metre) peaks, nearly all by difficult new routes.

Several teams attempted to repeat the Yugoslav West Ridge direct route without success, until a Bulgarian team did so in 1984. The first Bulgarian to reach the summit, Christo Prodanov, climbed without supplemental oxygen, was forced to bivouac overnight during the descent, and died—one of four summiteers who climbed without oxygen in the 1980s and failed to return.

The first Soviet expedition to Everest, in 1982, climbed a new route up the left-hand buttress of the Southwest Face, involving harder climbing than the original 1975 route. Led by Evgeny Tamm, the expedition was highly successful, putting 11 Soviet climbers on the summit.

The end of an era

The last of the great pioneering climbs of the decade was via a new route up the left side of the East Face to the South Col. Led by American Robert Anderson, it included just four climbers who had no Sherpa support and used no supplemental oxygen. British climber Stephen Venables was the only member of this expedition to reach the summit, on May 12, 1988. After a harrowing descent, during which Venables was forced to bivouac overnight without a tent, all four members of the team made it back to the Base Camp.

During the same period, more than 250 members of the “Asian Friendship Expedition” from China, Nepal, and Japan staged a simultaneous traverse of the mountain from north and south, which was recorded live on television. Also in 1988 the Sherpas Sungdare and Ang Rita both made their fifth summit of the mountain. That autumn the ace French climber, Marc Boivin, made the first paragliding descent from the summit; New Zealander Russell Brice and Briton Harry Taylor climbed the infamous Pinnacles on the Northeast Ridge; and four Czech climbers disappeared in a storm after making an Alpine-style climb of the Southwest Face without supplemental oxygen. The following year five Poles were lost in an avalanche on the West Ridge.

The increasing activity on Everest in 1988 foreshadowed what was to come. At the start of the spring season that year, fewer than 200 individuals had summited Everest. However, by the 2003 season, a half century after the historic climb by Hillary and Tenzing, that number exceeded 1,200, and more than 200 climbers had summited Everest two or more times; both statistics grew dramatically in the succeeding decade, particularly the proportion of climbers with mutiple multiple ascents. It became increasingly common for dozens of climbers to reach the summit on a single day; on May 23, 2001, nearly 90 accomplished the feat, and in succeeding years daily totals typically approached or exceeded that number during the peak of the May climbing season. An unprecedented 234 climbers made it to the top on May 19, 2012.

Since 1990

Commercialism and extraordinary feats

In the 1950s and ’60s the expense of mounting an expedition to Everest was so great and the number of climbers familiar with the Himalayas so few that there were many years in which no team attempted the mountain. By the 1970s expeditions had become more common, but Nepal was still issuing only two or three permits per year. In the 1980s permits became available for both the pre- and post-monsoon seasons and for routes via China as well as Nepal, and the total number of expeditions increased to about 10 per year. During the 1990s it became normal for there to be at least 10 expeditions per season on each side of the mountain, and those numbers continued to increase after 2000. At times It became increasingly common for several expeditions would to be operating simultaneously, which led to traffic jams in some of the narrower passages. One of the more notorious of those instances was on May 19, 2012, when the great throng of climbers on the mountain that day became dangerously backed up at the Hillary Step. Four people ended up dying then, prompting expedition leaders to better coordinate their final ascent attempts with each other.

In pure mountaineering terms, the big achievements of the decade 1990s were the first winter ascent of the Southwest Face in 1993 (by a Japanese team led by Yagihara Kuniaki), the first complete ascent of the Northeast Ridge in 1995 (by another Japanese team led by Kanzaki Tadao), and the first ascent of the North-Northeast Couloir in 1996 (by a Russian team led by Sergei Antipin). Most of the activity, however, became concentrated on the two “normal” routes via the South Col and North Col; there the majority of expeditions were commercial operations, with clients paying for (generally) efficient logistics, satellite weather forecasts, the use of a copious amount of fixed ropes, and an increasingly savvy Sherpa workforce.

One of the most successful operators, New Zealander Rob Hall, had led teams up the South Col route to the summit in 1990 and in 1992, ’93, and ’94. On May 10, 1996, his group and several other teams were caught at the summit in a bad afternoon storm. Hall and his American client, Doug Hansen, both died at the South Summit. An American guide from a separate commercial expedition, Scott Fischer, also died, along with several other climbers, including three Indians on the Northeast Ridge. Although the deaths in the late 1980s had gone almost unnoticed, those from the 1996 storm were reported instantly over the Internet and generated massive press coverage and disaster literature. In all, 12 climbers died in that year’s premonsoon pre-monsoon season, and an additional 3 died after the monsoon. The 1996 disaster may have caught the world’s attention, but it did nothing to decrease the lure of Everest. If anything, commercial traffic increased dramatically, despite the obvious message that no guide can guarantee a climber’s safety at such great heights. Indeed, after 2000 the number of climbers making it to the top of Everest continued to rise, reaching a peak of more than 600 in 2007 (a figure achieved again in 2013).

Meanwhile, a few individuals continued to achieve astounding new feats. In 1990 Tim Macartney-Snape traveled on foot all the way from sea level in the Bay of Bengal to the summit of Everest, without supplemental oxygen. Goran Kropp took this a step further in 1996 by bicycling all the way from his native Sweden before ascending Everest; he then cycled home. In 2001 the first blind person, American Erik Weihenmayer, summited Everest; he was an experienced climber who had already scaled peaks such as Mount McKinley and Kilimanjaro before his climb of Everest.

For sheer physiological prowess, however, few could match the Sherpas: in 1999 Babu Chiri climbed the southern route from Base Camp to summit in 16 hours 56 minutes. However, this accomplishment was surpassed by two Sherpas in 2003—Pemba Dorje and Lakpa Gelu, with Lakpa summiting in just 10 hours 56 minutes. Not to be outdone, Pemba returned the next year and reached the top in 8 hours 10 minutes. Perhaps as remarkable were the achievements of Apa Sherpa. In 2000 he reached the summit for a record 11th time, and he continued to break his own mark in succeeding years. Beginning in 2008, Apa’s summit climbs were undertaken as a member of the Eco Everest Expeditions; he recorded his 21st ascent on May 11, 2011. Apa’s total was matched by another Sherpa, Phurba Tashi, in 2013.

The record for the youngest person to reach the summit has been set several times since the advent of commercial Everest climbs. For some time it remained at 16 years after Nepal banned climbing by those younger than that age. However, at the time, China imposed no such restrictions, and in 2003 Ming Kipa Sherpa, a 15-year-old Nepalese girl, reached the summit from the Tibetan side. Her record was eclipsed in 2010 when American Jordan Romero, 13, reached the top—again from the north side—on May 22. Romero’s accomplishment was made all the more notable because it was the sixth of the seven continental high points he had reached.

Since the early 2000s the record for the oldest person to ascend Everest has alternated between two men, Japanese Miura Yūichirō and Nepalese Min Bahadur Sherchan. Miura—a former extreme skier who gained notoriety for skiing down the South Col in 1970 (the subject of an Academy Award-winning 1975 documentary, The Man Who Skied Down Everest)—set the standard at age 70, when he reached the top on May 22, 2003. On May 26, 2008, when he was 75, he made a second successful ascent, but Sherchan, age 76 and a former soldier, had summited the day before, on May 25, to claim the record. Miura regained the honour on May 23, 2013, at the age of 80. The oldest woman to reach the summit was another Japanese climber, Watanabe Tamae, who set the record twice: first on May 16, 2002, at age 63, and again on May 19, 2012, at age 73.

Some of the most remarkable of more recent the “stunts” attempted since 1990 have been unusual descents. In 1996 Italian Hans Kammerlander made a one-day ascent and descent of the north side, the latter partly accomplished on skis. In 1999 Pierre Tardivel managed to ski down from the South Summit. The first complete uninterrupted ski descent from the summit was by Slovenian Davo Karničar in 2000, upstaged a year later by the French extreme sportsman Marco Siffredi with his even more challenging snowboard descent of the North Face.

Finding Mallory and commemorating historic ascents

Two notable Everest events bracketed the turn of the 21st century. In the spring of 1999, 75 years after George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had disappeared climbing Everest, an expedition led by American Eric Simonson set out to learn their fate. On May 1 members of the team found Mallory’s body lying on a scree terrace below the Yellow Band at about 26,700 feet (8,140 metres). It was determined that Mallory had died during or immediately after a bad fall: he had skull and compound leg fractures, and bruising was still visible on the preserved torso—probably caused by a rope that was still tied around his waist. The team could not determine if the body was the same one found by a Chinese climber in 1975 or if that one had been the body of Irvine. It was clear, however, that both Mallory and Irvine had been involved in a serious fall that broke the rope which undoubtedly joined them. Personal effects found on Mallory included his goggles, altimeter, and a pocketknife, but not the camera he is thought to have taken with him when he left for the summit. It had been hoped that the film from it (if it could be developed) might have revealed more about the climb, especially if the pair had reached the summit.

The 50th anniversary of Tenzing and Hillary’s historic ascent was widely observed in 2003. Commemoration of the event had actually begun the previous May, when second-generation summiteers—Hillary’s son Peter and Barry Bishop’s son Brent—scaled the peak (the younger Hillary speaking to his father in New Zealand from the top via satellite phone); Tenzing’s son, Jamling Norgay, also participated in the expedition but did not make the final summit climb. In the spring of 2003 scores of climbers were able to reach the top of Everest before the May 29 anniversary date. Celebrations were held in several locations worldwide on the day itself, including one in Kathmandu where hundreds of past summit climbers joined Hillary and other members of the 1953 expedition.

Several milestone anniversaries were observed in 2013. A variety of events were tied to remembering the 60th anniversary of Tenzing and Hillary’s climb, including summiting of Everest by hundreds of climbers and treks by others on and around its lower slopes. The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) hosted a special lecture on May 29 that included Peter Hillary, Jamling Tenzing, and Jan Morris—the latter being the last surviving member of the 1953 expedition. In March the RGS also hosted a 25th-anniversary reunion of members from the 1988 East Face expedition. Several members of the first U.S. ascent (1963), including James Whittaker and Norman Dyhrenfurth, gathered in San Francisco in February for an observance of the 50th anniversary of that expedition. In addition, the 80th anniversary of the first airplane flight over the mountain was remembered during the year.